RP has nothing to do with game mechanics, you just have to act thats it. No npcs needed, no skills or items are involved. You just have to think who your character is and be him ingame. And yeah - if you can't fight them join them. Thats why it looks as it looks. Devs are more likely to improve fighting and stuff connected to it because it's all you guys care about. In this way this game will not evolve. New players see this and have two options - join or leave. And so on and so on, vicious circle.
Let's just don't get mad on each other and start from the beginning. We all have to take a step back and look on the whole game from different perspective. We can't care only about our current characters, I know it's hard but just imagine the wipe is coming tomorrow and you lose everything anyway. Now take a deep breath and what do you see? Big guns, crit snipers, taxi and crafters. The only job nowadays that can involve some roleplaying is slavery in my opinion. Every other job is connected with gang drama and this is preposterous. What we need is to cut this hydras heads all at once, not help them grow. By making brainless pking less profitable people may start thinking about alternatives. Maybe some cool events not just minefield and getting new armors. Every single other class has been nerfed because those mentioned before were crying that they can't play as they did before. You can't extol them just because they are the majority.
Now back to the subject. Maybe for you getting your stuff back is and option, because you have combat build. Imagine a doc traveling with some kidos through the wasteland, 2 minigun bursts, they're gone, no chance to get items back. ~deleteself herpaderp. That is just wrong. Also, blowing yourself up when you see you stand no chance is a brilliant idea. Imagine some kind of movie when protagonist is surrounded by some creatures and he knows he won't win, he just wants to send as many as he can to hell with his eq and maybe some data who knows. That's just pure awesome. I won't use it? Neither will you maggot.